And now, what you've all be waiting for... My take!

Overall, this turned out to be a panel discussing what a blog is, which is fine, but it was billed as how people are blogging about politics and that wasn't really talked about. In fact, the little bit of the first panel that I saw was packed with complaints that Hollywood is too liberal and the Right isn't represented as it should be, but then the second panel is started off with a statement that blogs generally lean right and that is that.

First of all, as Matt Welch noted, there's something like 2.5 million blogs in the US and to say that they generally lean one way or the other is kind of naive. There's a ton of people out there all with their own opinions, and that's what makes blogging so great. And secondly, if you are pissed that something is biased in one direction, it shouldn't be OK if something is biased in the other. Either bias is bad or it isn't, it can't only be bad when it doesn't agree with you.

But really, Cathy seemed to be the moderator of the panel (she was the host), which as I said seemed to be about blogging in general, which doesn't make any sense to me because of everyone up there she looked to know the least about it and she was constantly corrected by the panel. Two comments she made specifically make me say that - when that guy was asking about trolls, she said there is a "code of ethics" among people who post comments on sites and that comments are rarely personal attacks. The rest of the panel pointed out right away that this is anything but the case. And when someone else asked about how people get hits she said something along the lines of "no one really knows, it just happens." Again, the panel corrected her right away and explained it's all about the links. She also said she's been blogging for under a year, which again makes me ask why she is making generalized comments about blogs to a room full of people who don't know what blogs are. That just seems like spreading misinfo.

I'm not dissing her for not knowing about blogs, but if you don't know what's going on, you shouldn't make authoritative statements as if you do.

I've got a bigger post coming about blogging vs journalism but it's midnight and I've still got other work to do so you'll have to check back on that one.

Over coverage:
Cecile DuBois (Cathy's Daughter)
Britta Gustafson
Mack Reed (LA Voice - has almost a word for word transcript, so check my facts there if you want)
Amy Alkon - she says she's "Sitting next to Matthew Klam, who's writing a piece for The New York Times on blogging" which is a shame if this is what he's basing his story on.